<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.: "For nearly four decades, Chuck Colson's life and example have been a constant and necessary reminder to those of us in and out of public office of the seductions of power and the rewards of service. His famous redemption story and tireless advocacy on behalf of the marginalized and the outcast have called all of us to a deeper reflection on our lives and priorities. He lives on as a modern model of redemption and a permanent rebuttal to the cynical claim that there are no second chances in life."

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.: "Having been given a second chance, Chuck Colson devoted his life to carrying the Christian message of second chances to those in prison, and he saw countless lives changed by his compassion and example."

Michael Cromartie, Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center: "He played political hardball for keeps. He was ruthless. He wanted to win at all costs and he had a reputation as a person who wanted to win at all costs ... I think if he's going to be remembered for anything, he's going to be remembered as a person who had a complete turnaround in his life."

Like Lee Atwater, who underwent a sincere repentance and conversion from fierce win-at-all-costs partisanship during his late life final cancer death struggle, Chuck Colson also saw the light and recanted his prior life's work.

Atwater made personal amends and apologies to those he'd attacked over the years, and Colson spent some decades in his prison ministry service atoning for his prior life, which had landed him in prison himself as a convicted criminal.

May their examples serve as a light to those still deep in the criminal and unGodly side of the practice of politics. We must remember that before we are political partisans, we owe allegiance to all our fellow nationals as one country, and all people, as our brothers and sisters we are commanded as the second great commandment, to love as we love ourselves.